Senior / Staff Software Engineer

About Multiply Labs
Multiply Labs is a cutting-edge startup based in San Francisco, California, supported by top-tier tech and life science investors such as Casdin Capital, Lux Capital, and Y Combinator. We are revolutionizing the manufacturing of cell therapies by developing advanced robotic systems designed to automate and scale the production of these life-saving treatments. Our robots empower biopharma companies to produce cell therapies at scale without significantly changing their existing processes, reducing regulatory barriers and risks. While traditional approaches are time-consuming and lead to extremely high costs for patients (typically $1M+ per patient), using robotics can make these transformative treatments more accessible and affordable to patients in need.
To learn more and to view a video of our robots in action, visit us at www.multiplylabs.com  and follow us on LinkedIn. You can also read our latest peer-reviewed study, which highlights the statistical equivalence between manual and automated cell expansion processes, at cytotherapy.org.
About the Role
As a senior member of our Software Engineering Team, you will be a key technical leader responsible for the intelligent software that powers our automated manufacturing systems. Working at the intersection of robotics and biopharma, you'll collaborate with a world-class team to solve complex challenges. This role is for a passionate, hands-on engineer dedicated to building robust systems that have a direct impact on patient lives.

Responsibilities Include:

• Scheduler Development: Implement and optimize sophisticated algorithms for multi-day, multi-agent scheduling. You will maximize throughput and prevent deadlocks in a shared-resource environment with variable execution times.
• Resource Allocation: Develop logic to intelligently manage shared resources (e.g., incubators, liquid handlers) across parallel manufacturing batches.
• Distributed Systems Design: Architect and implement the software layer that manages the state and coordination of a multi-robot cluster.
• Resilient Orchestration: Design logic to maintain production continuity during hardware interruptions. You will implement mechanisms to isolate specific failures, ensuring that unaffected batches continue processing while the affected resources are addressed.
• Cloud-Cluster Connectivity: Implement the communication layer connecting on-premise robotic clusters with our AWS backend, focusing on reliable state synchronization and data persistence.
• Simulation & Testing: Build fast, discrete-event simulations to validate scheduling logic and throughput assumptions before code hits physical hardware.
• CI/CD & DevOps: Maintain and improve automated integration test suites to ensure the reliability of complex, non-deterministic systems.
• Mentorship: Mentor junior engineers, conduct code reviews, and champion software engineering best practices (clean architecture, testing patterns) to elevate the team.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with a focus on backend systems, distributed systems, or complex logic.
• Expertise in Python and a strong command of software engineering fundamentals (e.g., system design, concurrency patterns, distributed architecture).
• Strong ability to implement complex logic and search algorithms (e.g., DFS/BFS, graph traversal, constraint satisfaction). You don't need prior robotics experience, but you must be excited to solve hard optimization problems.
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate complex biological process requirements into software logic.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, technically challenging startup environment. Ability to balance context switching between multiple projects.

Additional Qualifications – Considered a plus:

• Hands-on experience with AWS (Lambda, IoT Core, DynamoDB) and container orchestration.
• Familiarity with interfacing with hardware or instruments via standard protocols (TCP/IP, WebSocket, REST, Serial).
• Deep comfort working in Linux environments, including networking configuration, systemd services, and shell scripting.
• Experience implementing monitoring and alerting for distributed systems.

Benefits

• 401K with 4% company match
• Health Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vi